Kiama diver forms friendship with animal in rock pool

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A New South Wales diver has formed a friendship with a wild octopus. Scott Gutterson has spent the last three months visiting the female he nicknamed Roxy in a rockpool off Kiama on the state's south coast.

Transcript

00:00I was just in the rock pool having a little bit of an explore, I love going in there and

00:05having a look around.

00:06And I just saw this beautiful octopus sort of tucked under a ledge.

00:10And I've been very curious with Okkies and how incredible they are as creatures.

00:15And I just started to watch her.

00:18What type was she?

00:20I think she's called a Gromley octopus.

00:22So there's plenty of different types around.

00:23But as you can see with that footage there, she's just a completely incredible animal

00:28with the way that she can change her colours and shape and all that.

00:32So she's absolutely beautiful.

00:34How did the relationship develop?

00:35What did she do that made you feel comfortable with her?

00:39Well, basically, I've just managed to find this technique with these octopus.

00:44If you go down, they're very curious.

00:47And if you just get your two fingers, for example, and just tap them on the rocks away

00:50from them, they're very curious.

00:53So she actually came out and grabbed my fingers, gave a bit of a tug and then went back into

00:57a hole.

00:58And just as time developed, she just got more and more comfortable.

01:02And I distinctly remember one day where I just felt like she genuinely trusts me now.

01:06I've probably been seeing her for about a month.

01:08And she came out and just completely grabbed my hand and she would run her tentacles through

01:12my hand.

01:13I'd put a little bit of tension on it and she would pull it through and then she'd get

01:15another one and pull it through as well.

01:18So yeah, definitely a sense of trust after about a month.

01:21And then I just slowly watched her become a mum and then, you know, see the baby's hatch.

01:26OK, so you noticed a change in her, I believe, before before she became a mum.

01:32Yeah, she definitely initially she was out in the open, very comfortable coming out of

01:38a den and interacting with me.

01:41And then then she started to basically go back into a den.

01:45And then one day I just noticed what appeared to be these white little cotton strings tucked

01:49in behind it, because I've never actually seen an octopus's eggs before.

01:53And I thought, what is that?

01:54And I went in and took my wife, Kelly, in there and we were just very curious.

01:57And as you can see in the footage there now, those strings eventually turned into obviously

02:02baby octopus.

02:03And it went from a very bright, intense white to almost like a dull brown.

02:08And that was just the pigment and all those octopus.

02:10There's about 55,000 in each of their lairs, supposedly.

02:14And it just started to change a colour.

02:16And that's that's what I noticed.

02:17She started to become a mum, obviously.

02:19And then she was in full on protective mode.

02:22I didn't approach her.

02:23She would just sit there and literally fan her eggs and, you know, keep oxygen going

02:28to them and stuff like that.

02:29And Scott, this is where the story gets sad, because for people that don't know, tell us

02:34what happens when octopuses have baby.

02:37Yeah.

02:38So basically, my understanding is that once the male octopus has a relationship with the

02:43female octopus, he goes away and passes away.

02:46And then the mother will obviously keep those baby octopus alive, as you can see in that

02:51picture there.

02:52It's nice and white.

02:53They're protecting her babies and she will continue to protect them for I'm not exactly

02:58sure the period.

03:00But then one day I went into the rock pool and she was there with the babies, as you

03:05saw in that photo.

03:06And then the next day, they were literally all gone.

03:09And that's where Craig Taylor managed to get in that night.

03:12And actually, you'd seen those photos just then and actually managed to capture the baby

03:16octopus, which the mother octopus will basically use her siphon and blow them out of the den.

03:22And that is generally once she releases her eggs, that's when she starts to slowly, sadly

03:26pass away.

03:28Gosh, what happened next?

03:30Oh, it was honestly, it's quite emotional just talking about it.

03:35You know, you think it's an octopus.

03:36How can you form a relationship in such a short time?

03:39But once the eggs had hatched and they were out, I didn't actually see any of them.

03:44I looked in the rock pool for the next couple of days, couldn't find any.

03:47They're most probably in the ocean now.

03:50But then again, she started to recluse and go back into a den and basically those strings

03:56eventually started to die and they eventually started breaking away.

04:01And then I just started to notice that in particular, the last week or so, she started

04:06to not be as active.

04:07Her color become quite mottled and gray.

04:11And even on her tentacles, she started to get little white patches.

04:15And on one of the tentacles, I actually noticed it, like if she had an elbow, at that point

04:20in the elbow, there was almost like a white patch.

04:23And from that white patch down, there was no movement in the arm.

04:27It was like a dead arm, effectively.

04:29The upside of that was moving, but the bottom of it was not.

04:33So I could clearly see that she was slowly dying.

04:36And that was yesterday I saw her.

04:39And I came home to my wife, Callie, and said, look, I think she's most probably not got

04:43long left.

04:44And my wife and my daughter, Lily, said, look, maybe don't go back because she's most

04:49probably going to have passed away.

04:51And today I went there after work and sadly, there she was in that position, passed away.

04:57And there were a few prawns having a feed on her and that's the life cycle of an octopus,

05:02I guess.

05:03So you can see in that footage there, even her eye is quite mottled and gray, her colors

05:08are nowhere near as vibrant as what they normally are.

05:11Is that you saying goodbye, Scott?

05:13Yeah, that's literally the last touch.

05:15And you can see even here, she runs her tentacle through my fingers.

05:19And that's what she did a lot of the time.

05:22And that's pretty much the last touch I had of Roxy yesterday.

05:25And today, you know, that was it.

05:28It's an incredible story, Scott, and made so much better by the capturing of your wonderful

05:34images.

05:35And Roxy will stay with you.

05:37But I gather you met someone else on your way up today.

05:41Yeah, so again, the cycle continues.

05:43So today I basically, oh, sorry, yeah, today, oh, no, sorry, yesterday, no, that was today

05:50actually after I'd seen her pass, I'm making my way back to the stairs.

05:54And sure enough, there's an octopus of a medium size, just walking along the bottom that's

05:59in there, or I assume hopefully that's her there.

06:03And I just again, put my hand down, and she came out and grabbed it, held it, had a bit

06:08of a touch.

06:09She used the tentacles for, you know, smell, touch, taste.

06:13And she was just feeling me.

06:15And you know, who knows, I might see her in the rock pool again.

06:19And she might be a male or a female, I'm not exactly sure.

06:22But she could be Roxy Mark too, who knows.

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